Patterns of Episcopal Power: Bishops in Tenth and Eleventh Century Western Europe

Proceedings of a workshop held in Apr. 2009 at the University of Bayreuth and of a session of the International Medieval Congress held in July 2009 in Leeds, England.
In medieval Europe, the death of a king could not only cause a dispute about the succession, but also a severe crisis. In times of a vacant throne particular responsibility fell to the bishops - whose general importance for the time around the first milennium has been revealed by recent scholarship - as royal counsellors and policy makers. This volume therefore concentrates on the bishops' room for manoeuvre and the patterns of episcopal power, focusing on the Eastern Frankish Reich and Anglo-Saxon England in a comparative approach which is not least based upon the research of a renowned medievalist, Timothy Reuter. His article about "A Europe of Bishops" ("Ein Europa der Bischöfe") is presented in English translation for the first time.